I've had a few. Most recent were the Roccat Kaves. Nice looks and build, pretty good sound quality although lacking top end compared to my Sennheiser HD 595. Problem is the surround sound simply doesn't work because surround headphones can't project the sound in front of you.

In the end I gave up, sold them and bought Logitech X540. Center speaker on top of monitor. Side speakers on a set of surround stands bought from tesco for £30.

2 rear speakers not on the other 2 surround stands but mounted on wall behind me. Thus I am surrounded by speakers that don't take up much space and the sound is projected in a way no so-called surround headphones can match.

Also the so-called CMSS 3d or whatever it's called is also bogus. As with multi driver surround headphones, it can't project sound in front of you. So if you're using surround headphones you will only ever hear the sound off the the sides or seemingly behind you but with no real spacial positioning. It's all bogus.

I've never had any problem with my Speedling Medusa 5.1 analogue headphones. They give such accurate positioning and makes a big difference in games. It does help to have a decent sound card too. Used to have an Audigy 2 ZS-N but now just have the VIA/Realtek onboard poop. Still works fine though, very hard for anyone or anything to sneak up on me in a game.

All the USB headsets I have tried have had very poor positioning, audio lag and a slight CPU overhead.

Definitely the best gaming headphones I've ever used.

I have no problem with the two forward drivers which work fine. The big problem is some games do not correctly support 5.1 and the front channel is almost non functional. Crysis, Farcry and some others are like that. Setting 4.1 fixes forward audio problems for me.

Analog headphones are best, all "gaming headsets" are junk in my mind. I tried the G35s, they were meh. The sound quality was ok but the drivers made my computer crash and they where like a clamp on my head plus the build quality wasn't super great

I would agree with Beast, I'm using a now very old but very high quality pair of studio headphones and with my sound card the virtual surround is actually pretty good. You also don't get the channel issues with virtual surround as the card takes whatever channels are available and then outputs the edited audio.

I've never had any problem with my Speedling Medusa 5.1 analogue headphones. They give such accurate positioning and makes a big difference in games. It does help to have a decent sound card too. Used to have an Audigy 2 ZS-N but now just have the VIA/Realtek onboard poop. Still works fine though, very hard for anyone or anything to sneak up on me in a game.

All the USB headsets I have tried have had very poor positioning, audio lag and a slight CPU overhead.

Definitely the best gaming headphones I've ever used.

I have no problem with the two forward drivers which work fine. The big problem is some games do not correctly support 5.1 and the front channel is almost non functional. Crysis, Farcry and some others are like that. Setting 4.1 fixes forward audio problems for me.

I haven't tried those headphones. A friend of mine had some and liked his. Thing is I've tried surround using 2 zalman surround (absolutely the worst headphones I have ever used) and the roccat Kave and both pairs failed to provide convincing positional audio. I used a 3d soundstage test where the sound source was moved virtually all around. All that happened was the sound went from in between my ears (supposed to be front projection), out to the sides or seeming behind but with no real positional accuracy. My Sennheiser HD595's are not the cheapest headphones (cost me £130 when I bought them) and they are no different when it came to testing 3d positioning using my then XFI Fatal1ty Titanium (I sold it eventually because it hard crashed my pc whenever I changed sound modes). Now using the excellent Auzentech Meridian 2G. Will never buy another creative soundcard since using the XFI.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Beast

Analog headphones are best, all "gaming headsets" are junk in my mind. I tried the G35s, they were meh. The sound quality was ok but the drivers made my computer crash and they where like a clamp on my head plus the build quality wasn't super great

So I went out and bought a set of Audio Technica AD-700

Quote:

Originally Posted by bagman

Just get the Audio Technica AD-700, they are the best headphones for gaming. They can also be modded quite easily to give them a even bigger sound stage. Check out http://www.head-fi.org/ .

Haven't heard those but AT produce some nice hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by favst89

I would agree with Beast, I'm using a now very old but very high quality pair of studio headphones and with my sound card the virtual surround is actually pretty good. You also don't get the channel issues with virtual surround as the card takes whatever channels are available and then outputs the edited audio.

I don't buy these virtual surround gimmicks really. Problem is it's a very subjective issue and it's very easy for the mind to convince itself it's hearing 3d sound. I'd convinced myself of that when I tried the CMSS 3d on various headphones and of course when I bought the Kave's I was impressed by the overall build quality but after using for some months I realised I was kidding myself. It wasn't really true accurate 3d sound. It couldn't project sound in front, only to the sides or seemingly behind.

Using the 5.1 speakers I can tell very easy where a sound is. One of the most surprising surround audio games turned out to be Serious Sam HD. The aliens firing spinny weapons at you, you can hear them whizz past you. Quite amazing.

Any of you guys experienced true 3D sound? The stuff they make either by pre-recording with a dummy head or with digital filtering. It's my opinion that it won't be long before that takes off, all you'd need is a decent set of stereo headphones. Perhaps you are talking about that, but if not you can see an example on youtube:

Any of you guys experienced true 3D sound? The stuff they make either by pre-recording with a dummy head or with digital filtering. It's my opinion that it won't be long before that takes off, all you'd need is a decent set of stereo headphones. Perhaps you are talking about that, but if not you can see an example on youtube:

It's pretty interesting how they make the digital filters to make the sound appear to be coming from any relative position in 3D space around your head.

The virtual barber shop is an awesome demonstration of properly recorded surround sound, it's one of the things I often use to wow family members and friends; it's great that they give a bit of explanation aswell.

Yeah, it's pretty good! I'm more interested in digital filtering myself though as anyone can shove microphones in a dummy's ears and walk around making some noise. I'm researching it at work at the moment, there's a few games that already incorporate proper 3D sound.

Yeah, it's pretty good! I'm more interested in digital filtering myself though as anyone can shove microphones in a dummy's ears and walk around making some noise. I'm researching it at work at the moment, there's a few games that already incorporate proper 3D sound.

Any games that have been already released or are they still in development? It'd be interesting to try it out.

I'm not sure, my research is looking into head orientation tracking linked with 3D audio, ie if you turn your head right the virtual sound source doesn't move to the right with you, it remains at a constant relative position. There was a team of dutch students that developed a FPS for the blind using GPS and head orientation with 3D sound, they managed to make a working prototype, would love to have had a go.

There is a forum here that is devoted to making audio games, a lot of their stuff is 3D I think, have a look around.